Zine Watch: Eons

With help from Holy Ghost Zine, Cody Cobb left hometown Louisiana for the mountains, taking stunning images along the way

Cody Cobb, if you can believe it, spent the majority of his youth indoors. Then, through the Internet, he began exploring the world beyond his hometown of Louisiana, moved to Seattle, and took off backpacking. He ended up producing the kind of photography that either inspires you to pick up a camera, or give up and put it down. Now, with the help of Holy Ghost Zine, his mind-blowing landscape photos have been compiled into 'Eons'.

I only research and plan the route, equipment and logistics of my backpacking trips. Rarely do I look at other photos from an area before I go. I have a vague idea of what kind of terrain to expect but the reality is always a surprise

Dazed Digital: How did the idea for the zine come about? What sparked the idea for the trip?Cody Cobb: After featuring one of my photos in an issue of Holy Ghost Zine, Alexander Mcluckie and Matthew Ritson contacted me with an idea to make a book solely featuring my landscape photography. Holy Ghost are brilliant at curating and assembling photos into a compelling format so I was thrilled. Compiling and presenting my photography is really frustrating for me. Maybe I'm too familiar with the details of where, when and how the individual photos were taken so it's hard for me to recontextualise them.

DD: All the landscapes look incredible and so different, where did you visit? And did you just discover them or do research beforehand on where to go?Cody Cobb: The photos featured in Eons were shot on hikes in Washington, California, Louisiana and the island of Kaua'i from 2010 and 2011. I only research and plan the route, equipment and logistics of my backpacking trips. Rarely do I look at other photos from an area before I go. I have a vague idea of what kind of terrain to expect but the reality is always a surprise.

DD: Can you describe the process of putting it together?Cody Cobb: Holy Ghost managed to sort through a huge pile of images that I dumped on them an hour before I ran off into the mountains to take more pictures to dump on them when I returned a month later. They turned it into something really beautiful and published it.